Women and Plantations

Worldwide, gender relations are unequal in many ways, for example, in the division of work and power between the sexes. Unsurprisingly, industrial tree plantations have different effects on women and men and can reinforce existing inequalities. When areas are deforested or otherwise substituted by industrial tree plantations, the division of labor between women and men generally undergoes severe changes, affecting especially women. The weakening of men´s role in production of food and other products for local and regional uses that is common when local ecosystems are destroyed and large-scale plantations set up has subjected women to rising rates of alcoholism among their partners as well as greater domestic violence and violence and sexual exploitation from outside workers. While for women, a job in the plantation could mean a way to earn a salary and gain autonomy, jobs rarely change existing unequal gender relations and can even aggravate the situation and lives of women.

On occasion of September 21st, International day of Struggle against Tree Plantations, women from several countries from West and Central Africa have taken the initiative to release simultaneously the petition we enclose below.
The...

This report aims at strengthening the struggles of all those who are opposing large-scale oil palm plantations in the global South. After expanding in Indonesia and Malaysia for decades, large expansions have more recently been occurring...

After many years of supporting local struggles and disseminating information from different countries on tree monocultures and its impacts, WRM presents a new report to all those involved in these struggle (1). No better time than the...

Impacts of Eucalyptus Monocultures on Indigenous and Afrobrazilian Women in the State of Espírito Santo.
By Gilsa Barcellos and Simone Ferreira
Women and Eucalyptus. Stories of Life and Resistance
Also available in Portuguese
Mulheres...

By the World Rainforest Movement
Selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement, addressing the gender dimension of the impacts in the forests of plantations
Women, forests and...

On November 12, with the endorsement of organizations from five continents, Friends of the Earth International and World Rainforest Movement publish an open statement denouncing the failure of the RSPO to eliminate the violence and destruction that oil palm plantations.

International Press release. March 7, 2018.
Women demand that oil palm companies stop violence and give back community land
On 8 March, International Women’s Day, hundreds of organizations and individuals demand an end to the violence...

Within the framework of September 21, International day of Struggle against Monoculture Tree Plantations, women affected by OLAM’s oil palm plantations, during a meeting in the village of Fera, in Gabon, decided to send a letter to FAO...

We invite organizations to sign on and support the statement, which denounces that the RSPO, since it was created 14 years ago, has been a tool that served the corporate interests of the oil palm sector

We said it in Mundemba, Cameroon, we reiterated it in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, we re-affirm this in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire: the abuse against women in and around industrial oil palm plantations must STOP!

Support African women! Sign the petition included on this article by filling the form enclosed below. Organized women who live around industrial oil palm plantations denounce different forms of violence.
The United Nations proposed 16...

A video produced by GRAIN shows how rural women in West Africa are working to protect traditional palm oil production in the face of the destructive expansion of industrial oil palm plantations.
See the video...

Women, communities say NO to the expansion of oil palm plantations and industrial palm oil
Each year on 17 April, peasants and food sovereignty advocates commemorate the International day of peasant struggle. Twenty years have passed...

We are 40 participants who have united in Mundemba, Cameroon, for an international workshop on the tactics and strategies of oil palm companies, from 28 to 31 January 2016. We have gathered to share our experiences from Cameroon, West and...

Women resist industrial palm oil (Photo: JVE-Cameroun)
Considering that the aspiration to human dignity is a common ideal for humankind, and that the United Nations Charter asserts this aspiration in its preamble and in the Universal...

Declaration by the World Rainforest Movement (WRM), March 2016
To Berta Cáceres and the Lenca People, the struggle continues!
In March, the world commemorates two important dates: International Women’s Day (March 8) and...

Dear sisters, friends, activists and fellow fighters,
In recent days, the world has been getting ready to celebrate the 8thof March, International Women’s Day, a date that is commemorated all over the world by unions, organisations,...

An article from the recently launched book “Gender and Land Tenure in the context of Disaster in Asia”, examines the impact of changing land use and land tenure systems in Sarawak on human rights, livelihoods, and local gender...

Women from all corners of the Southern African region descended on Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to participate in the People’s Summit. They aimed to share their experiences on how they have been affected either by decisions made by governments...

By the WRM
The CBD recognized in 1992 the “vital role of women in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity” and affirmed “the need for the full participation of women at all levels of policy-making and...

By the World Rainforest Movement – March 2007.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, women’s struggles for emancipation took on greater visibility. They were times of social and political transformations and women started...

By the World Rainforest Movement. 8 March 2006.
On the International Women’s Day, the World Rainforest Movement wants to pay homage to the innumerable women that have played and still play an essential role in the governance and...

Land owners in Cote d’Ivoire are trapped in contracts with Dekel Oil, a company that made false promises arguing villagers would become rich by signing contracts to let oil palm monocultures on their land.

Produced by Gender CC, Women for Climate Justice , with the support of the WRM International Secretariat
Directed by Flavio Pazos
Voice: Lori Nordstrom
Based on the work of:
Ana Filippini – WRM
Andrea Guzmán – CENPROTAC,...

By the World Rainforest Movement and Forest and Biodiversity Program of Friends of the Earth International
Screenplay: Flavio Pazos
Script: WRM International Secretariat Team
Voices: Cecilia Carrère, Ana Filippini, Raquel Nuñez, Teresa...